The Tourney

by Emo Rainbow

Chapter 7 - Trust

“This is so stupid!” Fighter complained as she jostled beneath the uncomfortable, and ugly, beige saddlebags on her back. “You know this is a bad idea, I know this is a bad idea, how could mom not!?” She walked in front of Clarke in an attempt to stop him, but all he did was lift her by her bags and spin her around so that she was facing the same direction on the street as him.

“I don't know, maybe if we hadn't lied about it she'd think twice," Clarke responded in exasperation, his limit for her whining coming to a head. “Besides, if I was your mom, I’d want you to get off your lazy butt and go to school too.” Fighter grumbled as she followed him, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t drag her hooves across the ground in defiance the whole time.

"Come on, why would you say that? You were lying right there next to me!" She complained as she trudged along the ground

"Wrong! I was fully prepared to, but you had other plans." Fighter looked up at the sky as they walked and contemplated the events that happened that night. She didn’t remember things going THAT bad, so why was he acting so mean?

---

“It was Clarke!” Fighter blurted out without any warning as she pointed across the table towards the human in question.

“Clarke? What Clarke?” He replied in confusion as now both Fighter and her mother were looking at him cautiously.

“His… human… customs. They… don’t let him shop for groceries on… Monday!” She said with constant changes in her inflections and extremely obvious pauses for her to think. Fighters mom chuckled as she crossed her front hooves and leaned against the doorway with a smile. Meanwhile, Clarke was just staring at Fighter in disbelief as she, without hesitation, threw him under a bus, ran him over, then backed up for seconds.

“That’s really what you’re going with? Gotta say, I’m a bit disappointed Fighter. Are you tired or just losing your edge?” Her mom said with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“How do you know it’s a lie? You can’t know.” Fighter responded as she craned her head to the side and glared at her mom with one eye open. Sunny then rolled her eyes, conceding to the fact of that statement, and looked over to Clarke with a bored expression.

“Clarke… do your human customs prevent you from buying groceries on a Monday?”

“Uhh…” He stopped for a moment and glanced at Fighter, her nervous look putting added pressure on his answer. IF her mother found out how the day really played out, there’d be a ton of headaches tonight, as opposed to a ton of headaches later. He hated to admit it, but he was gonna have to bite the bullet on this one. “Yes… my… human teachings prevent me from… doing so.” He said with pursed lips as he looked at the ground, then slowly craned his head upwards towards Sunny. She looked at him, then to Fighter, then back to Clarke with a furrowed brow.

“Well, you got me there,” She replied with a sigh and a shrug. “Next time though, why don’t you tell me that before I give you all my money.” She said before turning tail and finally leaving the dining room with a loud yawn.

With that crisis narrowly averted, Clarke turned on his busted radiator and looked at Fighter sternly, her face already beginning to sweat from the pressure. She smiled as wide as she could as he stared before grabbing onto her empty cup and raising it ever so slightly.

“We did it. Yaaaaay.” She said with waning enthusiasm that Clarke was certainly not going to reciprocate.

---

“Come on Clarke, I said I was sorry. Besides, I didn’t see you coming up with any ideas, So in short… you’re welcome.” Fighter finished with a sly smirk at her own staggering wit. Clarke just looked at her in disbelief and smiled, as the gall of this little girl to tell him something like that was truly awe-inspiring. “What?” She asked, feeling a tad uncomfortable under his gaze.

“Nothing, nothing. I just really hope you enjoy your day at school.” He said happily, his smile still plastered on his face. Fighter groaned in frustration and kicked herself in the head for getting so prideful. She just antagonized the one guy who could’ve helped her get out of the school day, so now her only option was to suck it up and do it. She hated doing the responsible thing when there was an easier shortcut staring her in the face. She had no one to blame but herself though.

Clarke glanced at the various groups of students flanking them on both sides as they all walked closer to the school, and found it strange how so many of them were much older, or much younger, than Fighter. This school must’ve been quite different from the ones back on earth, and he was curious to see it up close.

Fighter on the other hand just gazed at the fancy shops surrounding them as they passed by, all of them preparing their doors for the deluge of student customers they'd get both before and after the school day. She would give anything to just spend the day perusing the shops here instead of wasting her time at school, but time was running short as she could already see the once distant building growing closer every second. If she wanted out then she needed to act quickly.

“Come on, nopony’ll know if we just do something else. *gasp* We can go window shopping! I know some really cool stores.” She said, abruptly breaking the silence in a final desperate bid to sway Clarke to her side.

“Fighter, stop complaining. There've been no signs of other teams, we’ve been cooped up all week, and it’s Friday. Just one measly day at school and you’ll have the whole weekend on your hands… er-hooves.” Clarke explained as they finally reached the gates of the school. It was a massive building that looked like a megastructure with six floors, and the length of a football field and a half. Much of the campus beyond the outer walls were filled with grassy areas, and Clarke could imagine that fields and other smaller buildings were being hidden behind the massive main school building in front of them. He couldn’t be sure, but it almost looked like a huge portion of the districts area was reserved just for this school.

“Say, what grade are you in again?” He asked as he tore his eyes from the school and looked down at Fighter who seemed to be keeping an eye on the crowd of ponies passing them.

“Uh, fifth…” She responded mechanically as she continued to scan the crowd without really paying any attention to him.

“Fighter? You alright?” He asked with concern, thinking that maybe she was getting nervous from all the eyes trained on them as they walked by. As he watched her though, he quickly realized that she wasn’t averting her eyes from the other students, she was looking for someone.

"Please… can't we just do something else?" She asked in a near whisper that was almost drowned out by the loud conversations of the ponies passing them. She turned around to him, her eyes large and watery in the cutest display he’d seen since his first day here. He felt like giving in to every little demand she had, on top of offering to get some ice cream, but somehow he found the strength to do the right thing.

"You'll be fine. I know you're a little nervous, especially after how crazy the week's been, but just remember that you've got what it takes," he said as he knelt to her level and rested his hand on her head, prompting her to look up at him with an adorable glint in her eyes. "I won't be far if you need help, alright? Just one more day, and we'll do whatever you want over the weekend.”

"Promise?" She asked as she leaned her head into his comforting hand.

"Promise." He replied with a nod. Fighter returned the gesture with a nod of her own and faced the gate beside them. Before she stepped inside though, she quickly reached into her bag and grabbed something she'd nearly forgotten. She pulled out the map of District five and handed it to Clarke, who accepted it gladly and gave her a quick head pat as thanks. As Fighter entered the school grounds Clarke opened up the small pamphlet and groaned when he remembered that he'd have to rely on the pictures to guide him until he got better at reading Equestrian.

Fighter entered through the gates of the school and took a deep breath to calm herself. The faces surrounding her were familiar, yet foreign and terrifying at the same time. She was on her own, and after spending so much time near someone she could finally trust, it suddenly felt much more daunting to be that way. Her heart started to beat faster, and her breathing much less steady. Maybe she couldn’t do this?

“Clarke!?” She called out as she spun around and ran back out the gate, but when she looked to where he was standing moments prior, he was gone. The reality of her situation started to bear down on her, and every one of her senses felt like they were about to shut down until she heard the familiar bell ringing over the loudspeakers. She shook herself out of her mini freak out and marched into the school with determination and just a hint of anger. The faster she got through today, the faster she’d be on her weekend.

The cacophony of chattering students accompanied her steadfast march through the school as she made her way to the third floor where grades five through eight were located. As she made it to her desired floor, she froze as the dreaded encounter with her ‘friends’ was all but inevitable. Standing in the path of the stairwell were three small fillies, the first one named Lacey Frill was a very bright turquoise with red hair, the second named Comet Trail was bright yellow with navy blue hair, and the third was Catty Quote who had a purple coat with light pink hair and a light blue bow on her long flowing mane.

“Anyway, that’s when I said…” The conversation the three had been having suddenly cut off as they turned towards Fighter. She glared at all three of them angrily, but to her surprise they seemed to almost relish her anger, even going so far as to smile at her like nothing was wrong.

“Hey.” Fighter said coldly, trying, and failing, to hide the contempt in her voice.

“Oh, hey!” Catty said with a smile as she waved to Fighter Swan. "We were wondering where you were." She said while tilting her head to the side and chuckling.

"Yeah," Comet started as she stepped to the side to allow room for Fighter to pass. "I was telling everypony how my dad got one of those T.V's from Ambitech! It's so cool you wouldn't even believe!" Comet looked down at the filly and slowly lost her smile when faced with Fighter's unending glare. Everypony fell into silence as the brooding filly just shut her eyes and trembled for a moment, unable to even look at them.

They all backed up a little as a feeling of dread overcame them, but in an effort to remedy this Lacey decided to speak up. "H-hey! I... like your bracelet. Green works with you." She said with a slight tremble in her voice.

"Yeah," Catty added in while nudging Lacey. "This dress head knows all about fashion too, so you know it's true." Fighter let out a loud breath and finally raised her head, seemingly devoid of her anger.

“Yeah, my uncle got it for me… you know… for my birthday?” She said with a deadpan expression and a piercing glare that made them all of them don confused looks.

"Oh, well happy...birthd-hey!" Comet was interrupted in trying to wish her a happy birthday as Fighter intentionally stepped through them and knocked her over. “OW!” She cried as she hit the ground with a loud slam, but Fighter didn’t even turn to look at her.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?” Lacey shouted at her as she walked away, drawing a few eyes to them as she did. Fighter made no moves to turn around, that is, until Lacey said one final thing that shook her to her very core. “The least you could do is say sorry!” Fighter stopped in her tracks and slowly craned her head back so that one eye stared into their souls, before turning and continuing towards her classroom without another word.

The gall of those ponies to demand she apologize. After what they did they were lucky she didn’t cover their hooves in ice and leave them standing there all day. How could they do something so heinous, then act like everything was just peachy? How could they even think she could see them as her so called 'friends' anymore? Fighter was positively fuming from that encounter, but she felt confident that they got the message. Friendship over, and now she didn’t need anypony else.

Her racing thoughts finally subsided as she entered into her classroom and took a seat by the wall closest to the door. There would be plenty of time to deal with her emotional stuff later, right now she had some important work to do.

---

“Miss Swan.” The teacher called from the front of the class, drawing all eyes to the pink filly who had her head resting against her hooves, and her tongue lolled out in a less than flattering position as she snoozed away.

“What?” She asked with a bit of a snort as her light snoring abruptly came to an end. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she looked around the room, each of her classmates' faces filled with smiles and snickers as they stared at her.

“Were you asleep in my class?” Miss Highdive asked with a raised eyebrow.

“What? Nooooo… I was just…” She let out a very long yawn and dropped her tired head onto her hoof once again. “Admiring how the inside of my eyelids look.” The class gave a chorus of giggles at her snarky response, and soon the teacher just rolled her eyes and continued writing on the board. As the magically manipulated chalk clacked against the board up front, Fighter took a moment to gaze up at the clock above and smile when she saw the time. It was nearly lunch, which meant half of the day had been napped away.

If she kept this pace for the rest of her time here, she’d be back home before she knew it. She lazily glanced across the room and out the large window across from her desk, her mind settling on watching the blue sky lazily as the seconds ticked by. As she stared though, she felt a faint sting on her right eye, causing her to follow the source of the irritation. Her heart dropped as she saw a bright yellow gem, whose surface reflected the sunlight directly into her eyes, strapped around the hoof of a young brown filly near the front of the class. However, the moment she blinked, the bracelet had disappeared.

“What?” She whispered to herself as she stared at the filly in disbelief. She was a dark brown earth pony, about a shade darker than her mother, and had a short curled mane about a shade of blonde brighter than her own. Her face had a few freckles, and her cutie mark was that of a magician's hat with sparkles of magic coming out of it. Eventually, the filly returned Fighters stare with one of her own, and just smiled at her warmly from afar.

No matter how many times Fighter rubbed her eyes or squinted, the yellow bracelet would not reappear around the filly’s hoof. Maybe she was just seeing things? Or maybe it was a new power she wasn’t aware of. Regardless, she needed to stay on her guard, and more importantly keep an eye on this girl.

The bell rang, releasing the students for lunch, and as the majority of her class crowded around the door as quickly as they could, she and the brown filly got up and slowly approached each other.

“Say, you’re new here right?” She asked with a raised brow as she pointed to the girl.

“Sure am! Name’s Seashore!” She said as she took Fighters outstretched hoof and shook it heartily. Fighter eventually wrestled it out of the abnormally strong filly's grasp and gave her an odd look, one befitting her odd personality.

“Seashore… cool…” She got the sneaking suspicion this girl wasn’t just ‘quirky’ for the sake of it. If her eyes weren’t deceiving her, and she knew they couldn’t, she was definitely hiding her gem somewhere. She decided to test the waters a bit and see if she could catch her in a slip-up. “Hey, you see my bracelet?” She said as she turned her left leg enough so that her shimmering green stone stared Seashore in the face.

“Wow! Your bracelet is so pretty!” Seashore said with a gasp, followed by wide glistening eyes as she gawked at Fighters source of power.

“Oh, it’s nothing special,” Fighter said as she shook her head bashfully and rubbed the gem with her free hoof. “It’s… not as pretty as yours.” She said with a smile as she faced Seashore. Seashore looked up from the gem and tilted her head, her warm smile faltering ever so slightly from the confusion of Fighters confident proclamation.

“My what?” She asked innocently. Fighter ‘ahhed’ silently in response, and realized that such a simple act of trickery wouldn’t be enough. This girl may have looked super happy go lucky, even a little ditzy, but she was ninety percent sure it was all a front. “Looks like the door’s clear,” She said as she pointed to the opened classroom door, the sounds of the hallway filling their ears as a result. “Wanna eat lunch together?” She asked happily.

“That sounds great.” Fighter replied after taking a moment to resituate herself. The two walked down the hall past several groups of chatting students, Fighter not once taking her eyes off of the girl. She knew what she saw, and she’d be damned if she was going to give up the search. She just needed to be ready for Seashore to blunder, and when she did she’d be ready for a fight. There wasn’t any time to focus on school when the Tourney was active, there were a lot of lives at stake.

“This school is really big,” Seashore commented as her head spun around the room, taking in all of the sights and sounds of the state of the art schoolhouse. “Is every school in Canterlot like this?”

“Huh? Well, I guess. I’ve only ever gone here. This school’s so big because kids from district five to eight go here.” Fighter explained as she recalled the information as best as she could. “Why? Are the schools where you come from not like this?”

“Oh yeah, I went to an itty bitty schoolhouse. It fit since I came from an itty bitty town,” She said proudly as they made their way down the stairs. “A little place called Rocky Road.”

“You made that name up, no way there’s a town called Rocky Road.” Fighter retorted almost immediately the idea of such an idiotic name not even registering as fact for her.

"Really!?" Seashore responded in genuine surprise as they finally reached the first floor of the schoolhouse. The many lockers and sparse rooms flanking them on either side as even more students ran off for their lunch. "Then where did I grow up?" She asked as she contemplated this conundrum.

"Haha, very funny." Fighter said with a roll of her eyes as she continued towards the exit of the school.

"What is?" Seashore again responded with an oblivious look as she trotted after her new friend. Fighter stopped for a moment and gave her an ‘are you serious’ look, but she quickly rectified that with a simple face hoof.

"Let's just… go to lunch." She said slowly as she finally looked away from Seashore and towards the exit door only a few feet in front of them. She reached out for the push mechanism, but before she could open it up for them, a familiar face slid in front of her and blocked the door. Fighter growled as one by one the three fillies from before stepped in front of her and slowly approached, the band-aid on Comets face making her roll her eyes.

“Oh!” Seashore said in surprise as they appeared. “Hello! Are you Fighters friends?”

“I don’t know, are we friends Fighter?” Lacey said with a bit of an attitude, one that Catty seemed to share. Strangely enough, though, Comet looked extremely hesitant in their presence, almost intentionally hiding herself behind them. “Last time I checked, friends don’t just trample each other to the ground for no reason.”-

“For no…!” Fighter caught herself as her anger began to surge once again. Were they really this stupid? Are they really trying to imply that she had no right to be mad? Sure, maybe pushing Comet over was unnecessary, but to even suggest that she had no reason to. “Hmm, hmm, hmm…” Fighter started chuckling slowly as her head drooped in anger, and soon the chuckle turned into a full-blown maniacal cackle. The fillies looked at each other nervously, and even Seashore stepped to the side a bit, as Fighter laughed like there was no tomorrow.

“You… you wanna know something funny?” She asked as her laughter slowly petered out, but none of them answered. “I’m not even mad at you for missing my birthday. I’m mad at myself… for even believing you would show up in the first place!” After saying that she resumed laughing, but this time she noticed a stark change in their expressions.

“Birthday?” Lacey said in shock as she and the others continued to back away from her.

“Yes!” Fighter pointed her bracelet clad hoof towards them, not noticing the massive green light that flooded out of her gem and illuminated their faces like a flashlight. “Friends don’t just ignore something so big! But like I said, that was my fault, haha!” Fighter felt more and more disconnected, her head a haze of emotions and thoughts that led nowhere. She felt a sudden urge to use one of her spells, but which one?

Maybe Garasei? Freeze their faces and slam them into the wall? Or maybe good ole’ Kachin? One solid punch with that and they would have trouble remembering much more than birthdays. Finally, what about Soul Rip? They saw what it did to other gem holders, so what about normal ponies.

“Okay, how about everypony calms down, yeah?” Seashore said as she jumped in between Fighter and her ‘friends’. Fighter Swan's dangerous thoughts were suddenly terminated as the source of her distress was blocked, and immediately the green light dimmed back down. “I… uh… have some nice cupcakes! My mom made them, and they’re good. Why don’t we share some?” Seashore dropped her saddlebags and tried to fish for her lunchbox, but as she looked up to where Fighter had previously been standing, she was gone.

Immediately after Seashore deescalated the situation, Fighter ran off as fast as she could through the school exit. Her body became a blur as she galloped across the lunch area behind the school, making her way to one of the gym equipment sheds. In a matter of seconds, she cleared the distance between, running behind the shed and slamming herself against the shaded wall as she let her heart rate slow down.

She sat there trembling, the only sound being her deep breaths, and shook her head in defiance. Why was she so affected by this? It was her fault, she needed to be mad at herself, not anypony else. So why? Why did she feel so angry when she saw them? So hurt when they dismissed her? It’s not like she ever really trusted them, she knew that she shouldn't trust anypony. So why…. why was she crying?

Fighter dropped her head as the tears freely fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She knew this was a bad idea, but stupid Clarke made her go anyway. They could’ve been doing literally anything else right now, but instead, she was sobbing like a newborn foal who didn’t get their dessert. These emotions were so stupid, and her best bet was to cut them off and try her best to seal them up. The only way to truly be a healthy individual was to look at things logically, and that meant cutting emotion out of the equation.

That was easier said than done however, as the tears just did not want to stop no matter how much she demanded they do. Maybe she had enough time to skip school before lunch was over? Then she could just wait at home for the weekend, instead of being stuck in this ring of Tartarus.

“Hey… Fighter?” Catty called out cautiously. Fighter lifted her head and flipped her bangs out of her way as she stared up at the three fillies plus Seashore. She sniffled for a moment and wiped away her tears as she looked away from them, uninterested in what they had to say. She’d listen, but this would be good practice for never letting her guard down.

“How’d you find me?” She asked in as steady a voice as she could manage. The trio all sat down across from her, with Comet looking over to Seashore.

“She chased after you almost immediately, she said she saw you come here,” She gave a weak smile and nodded towards Fighter nervously. “You run pretty fast.” She kept her head turned away, unwilling to receive such a surface level compliment from the likes of her.

“Listen, we came to say we're sorry,” Lacey said, and suddenly Fighter felt her heart's newly formed barrier beginning to crack. She grimaced for a second and squinted her eyes to not let the tears flow again, but she still kept her gaze off of the others. “We really had no idea it was your birthday.”

“What, did you not get the invite I sent almost a week in advance?” She said with slightly more bite than she was intending. She kicked herself in the head for getting emotional and continued trying her best to approach things calmly, this time by staring them straight in the eyes. This backfired however as she saw the remorse within all of them, something that made her eyes widen in realization.

Catty slowly took off her bow and pushed it closer to Fighter, her eyes being glued to the gesture in utter disbelief. On her left, Lacey set down a pretty silver lunchbox and pushed that closer, and on the right Comet set down a smooth rock that looked like it was covered in rainbows before pushing it over as well.

“W-what… what is…? I don’t…” She said in confusion as she frantically looked between the objects, and back up to her friends. Fighters breathing became unstable, her tears now returning even harder than before as she struggled to find the words to express the swirling emotions in her head.

“I know it’s not much, but I hope it’s a useful birthday present,” Lacey said while pointing to the lunchbox.

“I know it’s just a rock, but it’s a special prism stone that shines like a rainbow. I hope you like it as much as I do.” Comet said quietly, her face smiling warmly.

“You already know this is my favorite bow. I really like it…” Catty said as she finally let go of the bow. “But I like you better.” She slowly walked over to Fighter and scooped her in a hug, the other two following suit as they all repeated their apologies, asking if she’d forgive them. Fighter was sure that this had to be a dream, but a hug this warm coming from somepony other than her mother or Clarke couldn’t possibly have been faked.

“I-I-I… thank you!” She cried as she finally allowed herself to be embraced by her friends. “And I’m sorry. I’m sorry I hurt you, doubted you, I’m just… so sorry!” Fighter’s emotions couldn’t decide if they wanted to be happy, or sad, so she just let out some weird gasping noise that sounded like a dying walrus. For the first time though, Fighter trusted that nopony would judge her for it.

As the newly patched friends continued to hug things out, Seashore smiled at her handiwork. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what Fighter would have done if she didn't intervene, but that was already water under the bridge. She turned to leave, believing her job to be done, until she was stopped by Fighters voice calling out for her.

“Seashore!” She cried, causing her to freeze and look back. “Get over here!” She said with a smile as she waved her over. The others who had opened up their hug did the same, waving their new friend over for her wonderful deed. Seashore did not need to be told twice.

“Oh yeah!” She screamed as she sprinted towards the group and joined in the hug. She couldn’t wait to tell Will that not only had she made some friends, but she made four in just one day. That would give him pause before he doubted her again.

---

“See ya!” Fighter shouted as she waved goodbye to her three friends as they walked towards the carriage pickup for district six. She let out a long sigh of content and felt a natural smile spring to her lips, something that she hadn’t even thought was possible anymore.

“Boop!” Seashore exclaimed as she jumped next to Fighter, wrapped an arm around her neck, and booped her on the nose. Fighter let out a giggle and reciprocated the boop to Seashore, before waiting patiently by the front gate of the school. The day had finally ended, and with it a relief that Fighter had been waiting for all day. Although, while she was glad that the weekend was on the horizon, she was even more sad that the day had to end.

She’d been dreading the fallout with her friends, but thanks to the help of the new filly in school she not only patched it up but got sweet gifts in the process. She looked over to Seashore happily as she gazed up at the late day clouds and once again glanced down to her hooves. There was no sign of the bracelet, and for the first time Fighter was willing to accept that… maybe she just had it wrong.

There was no way a contestant was this kind and contagiously happy, so she felt that it was finally time to set aside her suspicions. Maybe… there was a new pony she could trust now? She’d only just met Seashore, and already she couldn’t imagine what the day would’ve been without her. What she… would’ve done.

“I got something on me?” Seashore asked cutely as she started inspecting herself. “Is it a bug? I love bugs!” She exclaimed before spinning in place and searching her body for the bug she was certain had been there.

“No, no,” Fighter said with a chuckle as she stopped the girl. “I just wanted to say… thanks.” Seashore looked at her like she was crazy and patted her on the shoulder.

“You’re welcome, but I didn’t do much. I just reminded them that friends are supposed to care about each other's feelings.” Seashore said sagely as she raised a hoof and nodded towards her. Fighter thought about those words for a second and returned the nod. Soon though, Seashore too had to leave as she walked into the streets by herself to make her way home, but not before telling Fighter they should have a sleepover sometime. Fighter had never really been to a sleepover before, so as long as she was offering, she’d definitely give it a try.

Fighter waited for a few more minutes as the last one by the gate, wondering if Clarke had just forgotten to pick her up, but as soon as the thought passed she heard some thundering footsteps to her left.

“Hey!” Clarke yelled from a distance as he jogged towards her, his scarf flapping in the wind behind him. “Sorry… late… kid.” He said between pants as he leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees.

“That’s okay.” Fighter responded with a shake of her head, a sudden feeling of guilt overcoming her.

“What’s up? You look a little down.” He said as he finally caught his breath. Fighter sat down for a moment and looked up at Clarke, his eyes beginning to look around in confusion.

“Clarke… I learned something today. Having a friend is a two-way street, and sometimes admitting when you’re wrong is more important than protecting your pride,” She looked down at her gem, then back up to Clarke. He seemed taken aback from this sudden topic, but he remained silent as she talked. “I almost lost my mind today, and I would’ve if a new friend hadn’t set us all straight. It saved our friendship… and me.

“So I guess what I’m trying to say is…” She stood up, then realized something that made her pause. She pointed towards the ground, and after a moment Clarke realized that she wanted him to kneel. As soon as he did, she finally had enough leverage to reach up and hug him. “I’m sorry for lying to mom about you.” She could feel Clarke freeze for a moment, before a single hand reached behind and awkwardly patted her back.

“No… no problem kid.” He said slowly, and suddenly Fighter became extremely worried. She let go of Clarke and backed away, another action that seemed to startle the man, looking up at him in fear.

“Is it too late? Are you mad at me? Please, I promise not to do it again!!” She said, a frantic mess as her tears threatened to resurface.

“Hey, hey, hey! It’s okay, it’s okay, calm down.” He said with his palms outstretched in a calming manner. “I ain’t mad. It was just… unexpected is all.” She sniffled for a moment as he got closer, but the moment he smiled at her she felt a great sense of relief.

“You’re pretty smart aren’t you?” He said with a bit of a chuckle. Fighter let out a chuckle of her own for a moment as she wiped her eyes.

“I hope I am.” She could tell that he was being genuine with her, but even so she still needed to try and prove herself. He was the first one to show her affection when no one else could, the one who pushed her to give today a try. The last thing she wanted was to let a betrayal like this go unfixed.

“Hey, got a quick question,” He said abruptly as he fished for something behind him. Fighter watched curiously as he pulled out a small damp rag and presented it to her. “Does this smell like chloroform to you?”

“What’s Chloro- mmph!” Suddenly his smile widened as he pressed the rag to her face, covering her mouth and nose instantly in a strange suffocating smell. She began to go limp, as her consciousness quickly left. The last thing she saw was Clarke shaking his head and smiling as he looked down at her.

“Haha! I’ve always wanted to do that.”

Author's Note:

Fun Fact: I wrote this chapter to completion three different times, each version having things I liked, and things I didn't. Half of the time since releasing the last chapter was just spent deciding which version to use in the seventh. Don't worry though, I'll regret my choice as always, like nearly every chapter I put out. Such is life.